WXCW
WXCW is the CW-affiliated television station for Southwest Florida licensed to Naples. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 45 from a transmitter near the Charlotte and Lee County line. Syndicated programming on WXCW includes: Two and a Half Men, The Big Bang Theory, Anderson, Dr. Phil, Ricki, and Rachael Ray. Along with ABC affiliate WZVN-TV, WXCW is one of two Fort Myers-based stations licensed to Naples. Contents http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WXCW# hide *1 History *2 Digital television **2.1 Analog-to-digital conversion *3 News operation **3.1 News team *4 References *5 External links History[edit source | edit] The station began broadcasting on January 1, 1990 as WNPL-TV. As an Independent, it filled a void after WFTX-TV joined Fox four years earlier. The station was beset with problems early on, particularly with regard to finding programming. Despite this, from 1993 until 1998, the station carried Florida Marlins baseball games from WBFS-TV in Miami. It also was the area's affiliate for the Orlando Magic broadcast network. On January 16, 1995 the network became a charter affiliate of UPN and changed their call letters to WTVK in September of that year. Those calls were previously used on what is now WVLT-TV in Knoxville, Tennessee. The WNPL call sign was brought back in 2009 when a new radio station at AM 1460 signed-on to improve coverage of WPTK (1200 AM, now WINK). In 1998, the station's original local owners sold the station to ACME Communications, who swapped affiliations with the area's cable-only WB affiliate WSWF (now WNFM). It then adopted the on-air moniker "WB 6", after its channel location on cable. As part of the WB/UPN merger into the CW, ACME announced on March 9, 2006 that their stations were to join The CW when it launched in September 2006, including WTVK, with WNFM going with the competing MyNetworkTV. On May 15, 2006, ACME announced that it would sell WTVK to Sun Broadcasting. The sale was completed February 16, 2007, with the new owner changing the call sign to WXCW on March 2. Digital television[edit source | edit] The station's digital signal is multiplexed: On August 13, 2012 WXCW launched MundoFox on a new digital subchannel 46.2. It is also available on Comcast channel 229 in standard definition and channel 437 in high definition. Analog-to-digital conversion[edit source | edit] On February 17, 2009, WXCW ceased analog broadcasting and became an all-digital station transmitting its signal on channel 45 (re-routed to channel 46.1 through PSIP). News operation[edit source | edit] As an independent station, WNPL operated a news department, producing a weeknight prime time show entitled Channel 46 Ten O'Clock News. This originated from its original studios on Bonita Bay Boulevard in Bonita Springs along South Tamiami Trail (U.S. 41/SR 45). Due to low ratings and financial reasons, the broadcast was dropped and its news department was shut down.[1] [2] On March 26, 2007, WINK-TV began producing a prime time newscast on WXCW. Right from the start, it emerged as a strong second place ranked broadcast. On October 20, 2007, WXCW began broadcasting their local news and available programming in high definition. On January 7, 2008, WXCW and WINK expanded their local news presence to two hours in the morning. As of October 31, the first 21 minutes of the nightly prime time show is commercial free. On August 24, 2009, WINK-TV expanded the 10 o'clock broadcast to an hour. News team[edit source | edit] All on-air staff on WXCW is provided by WINK-TV. Anchors *Stacey Adams - weeknights at 10:00 p.m. *Chris Cifatte - weeknights at 10:00 p.m. *Haley Hinds - weekends at 10:00 p.m.; also reporter SkyTracker Meteorologists *Joey Sovine - meteorologist; weekday mornings (7:00-9:00 a.m.) *Eric Stone - meteorologist; weekends at 10:00 p.m. *Scott Zedeker - meteorologist; weeknights at 10:00 p.m. Sports *Clayton Ferraro - Director seen weeknights at 10:00 p.m. *TBD - weekends at 10:00 p.m. Reporters *Alissa Reitmeir - morning traffic anchor and reporter (7:00-9:00 a.m.) Additional news staff from WINK-TV is used; for listing, see WINK-TV. References[edit source | edit] #'^' http://ekimmell2.tripod.com/old.html #'^' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKmgFHV6Ie8 External links[edit source | edit] *Official website *MundoFOX SW Florida *WINK-TV website *Program Information for WXCW at TitanTV.com *Query the FCC's TV station database for WXCW *BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WXCW-TV